Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.

My name is Jody Abergan.

This day, August 12, 1892, actually August 11, 1892, a woman by the name of Lizzie

Borden is arrested for the murder of her father, Andrew, and stepmother, Abbey in Fall River, Massachusetts.

A week earlier, the murders had rocked the small high society town.

I will read you one of the headlines from the day after, quote, shocking crime, a venerable citizen and his

aged wife hacked to pieces in their home. Shocking crime, gruesome crime,

and the headlines and the fascination with the trial did not stop there.

Borden's trial where she was eventually found not guilty.

I will say, it's covered breathlessly and then in the years and decades and

I guess centuries since, people are still fascinated by the Lizzie Borden story.

So that's what elevates it from just a gruesome murder to something that maybe teaches us something about journalism and our

fascination and obsession with true crime over the years and obviously we're

a podcast where might be the only not true crime podcast in the world I haven't checked

but you know we will dip our toe and talk a little bit about why this stuff is so

fascinating here to do it as always are Nicole Hammer of Columbia and Kelly

Carter Jackson of Wesley. Hello there. Hello Jody. Hey there. Did I spoil that Lizzy Borden was found not guilty because we all realized that we didn't we didn't think we really had that at our heads. But yeah, she was found not guilty and we can get to that but Kelly it seems like the

social context into which this story this event happens is so important so tell us about fall River, tell us about the family and kind of what we need to know on that front and then we'll get into the case itself.

Sure, so Fall River is about 30, 40 minutes outside of Boston depending on traffic. If you're thinking

though in the 1892 probably a little bit further away given that they didn't

have you know massive automobiles and highways. But Andrew Borden is a very wealthy man. You know, he's not just an

ordinary citizen. He owns a lot of real estate, a lot of mills, banks, and so all of this boat that he has, it's interesting because he

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